Crews install a precast architectural concrete panel with a sculpted likeness of the late photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks, who grew up in St. Paulâ€™s Rondo neighborhood, on the Victoria Street Station in St. Paul on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013. The METRO Green Line (Central Corridor LRT) Victoria Street Stationâ€™s art features the Faces of Rondo, a series of portraits of Rondo residents by artist Foster Willey and architect Guy Willey. Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Council.

As construction crews work to finish the Central Corridor transit line, artists have descended on its stations to give each an identity.

At the Victoria Street Station in St. Paul, large portrait terra-cotta tiles will show the “Faces of Rondo.”

Stainless-steel spirographs will adorn the East Bank Station on the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus to reflect science and discovery. The 10th Street Station in downtown St. Paul will have glass and stone mosaic reminders of past Winter Carnival ice palaces.

All 18 new stops along the light-rail line between the downtowns of St. Paul and Minneapolis will feature artwork unique to its location. Each station’s art came with a $187,000 budget and involved residents in the planning.

“We put a lot of effort up front into keeping the community involved,” said Laura Baenen, communications manager for the Central Corridor project.

A technical committee of local funding partners and public art experts chose each artist based on their previous works and how well they worked with the community. Then a station art committee made up of community residents suggested ideas to the artists.

Minneapolis artist Foster Willey and his brother, architect Guy Willey of Brooklyn, N.Y., were chosen for the Victoria Street Station, located near St. Paul’s former Rondo neighborhood, which was displaced by the construction of Interstate 94 in the 1960s.

Nearby residents decided on featuring people and landmarks from the Rondo area as a good way to reflect the neighborhood.

“We posted on an online community website and put fliers all over the community to call for nominations for the Faces of Rondo,” community outreach director Shoua Lee said. They received about 90 nominations; 17 were chosen for the portraits.

One of the most prominently featured portraits is of Gordon Parks, an African-American photographer, writer, musician and film director. His portrait is made of durable precast architectural concrete and is on the backside of the station, looking out over eastbound traffic on University Avenue.

Several family members of Parks watched as his face was installed at the station last month. The portrait is surrounded by the names of “The Learning Tree,” one of Parks’ first novels, and “A Hungry Heart,” his autobiography published a year before his death. The name of one his most famous photographs, “Emerging Man,” also is included.

“This family is very committed to keeping his legacy alive,” said Robin Hickman, Parks’ great-niece. “He was a transformational inspiration to young people.”

“He was a very lovely man who cared a lot about young people,” said Dorothea Burns, a niece of Parks’ whose own work in the community was rewarded with a portrait at the station.

The Willey brothers were new to the neighborhood and did quite a bit of research at the beginning of the project. They are pleased with the reaction they’ve gotten from residents.

“I spent a lot of time in the community and documented my observations, looking for character,” Guy Willey said. Foster Willey spent a lot of time reading books on the community and looking at photographs.

The art installations at all but two of the Central Corridor stations should be completed by the time winter sets in, officials said.

The Rice Street and Union Depot stations will be completed in the spring.

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